Damn it, AXE. I really wish you were a smarter, more creative brand.

A thank you goes out to copyranter for providing this ad for me to borrow. He also added how the pink O should be on top of the blue X to show the "AXE effect" like I'm guessing they're attempting to do. I completely agree with him and it makes me hate this even more. Overall, this ad is one of the worst print ads I have ever seen.  The layout is lackluster and uninteresting. The concept is simply atrocious and not understandable unless you're very familiar with AXE's advertising. But even then, it's a big stretch. They're simply trying WAY too hard to illustrate the "AXE effect" without showing girls hanging all over guys, like they usually do. Really though, what association can you make between cheap cologne and tic-tac-toe? Can't think of one that truly makes sense and would sell the AXE strategy well? Yeah... didn't think so.

A great ad for an ad agency.

So good, so funny, and so smart.  In all of my advertising classes, my professors have always told me that if you're going to make it in advertising, you have to sell yourself.  This commercial is doing exactly that.  What better way to show that you can create great advertising than to create a terrible advertisement to show everything you won't be?  I think it's phenomenal.  Though, I do think they could use a voiceover at the end where they introduce their company, but that might just be me being picky.  Otherwise, this almost makes me want to move to California and work for them.

To ANYONE who might be reading this, I would really appreciate your feedback on this one.

So, this is an assignment for my Advertising Portfolio class that is due tomorrow morning.  As you can see, my group members and I chose Degree deodorant to be targeted to young and teenage women.  The bottom two are what we plan on turning in tomorrow.  As for the first one, that was the comp we made and brought in last class to get the opinion of our professor.  Although we're targeting young and teenage women, he felt that the layout was a little too kiddy and that we were further limiting our target with it that way.  In a lot of ways, I can agree with him, however, I still liked the idea of presenting the image as a polaroid.  The art director I'm working with has abandoned the idea in these new comps, but I still liked it.  I'd really like to know what you think about that.  Anyway, I wrote the body copy for the spread and was a big part of the ideation for the concept.  I hope you all (and my professor) like it.
P.S. please disregard the minor typo in the last paragraph of the spread.  The art director overlooked it when he was making it and is in the process of editing it right now.  It's supposed to say "been known," not "been know."

Best movie ad ever.

Forget the commercials in between.. And the movie.. And even the trailer itself. The strategy of using the creepiest bookends anyone can make, in my opinion, is brilliant for a horror movie like this. I remember seeing this my freshman year late at night and being thoroughly impressed. Outside of the two people I saw this with (that also thought it was damn creepy), everyone I tried talking about this with had never seen it. The next day I looked it up on YouTube and found this video of the exact moment that I saw on Comedy Central. So, that just goes to show you the memorability and stopping power a strategy this strong can have on a viewer. I never saw this commercial(s) or this bookend strategy again since then, but I will always remember this ad. The movie... not so much.

Please disregard the fact that I'm white and let me rant about how awful this is.

First of all, the worst kinds of ads are the ones that blatantly sound like ads. In this 15-second spot, the word "meet," a word that is in the website title, is said 6 times. So, basically they're saying, "use, use, use our website," as much as they can in 15 seconds. Second of all, is this really convincing anyone to use the service? Look at how low budget it looks. And listen to the writing... "meet exciting black people who want to meet other exciting black people." Really?? That is the one line you're using to sell this website in this little mini-commercial? C'mon. Theoretically, if I was a black single, I'm sure after seeing this commercial I'd think to myself, "Well, I'm an exciting black person, and I would love to meet other people like me... Where's my computer?" NOT. If anyone is actually convinced by this advertising, I'm sure that these people that use it are not the most exciting people you could want to meet.

Here's my attempt at writing an AXE commercial targeting women.

I wrote this commercial in my Creative Thinking class last Spring.  The assignment was to pick a product that has been known to target a specific audience, and write a commercial for it targeting an opposite target.  I found this to be pretty difficult to do, so I tried to find a middle ground between the extremes of a masculine brand, like AXE, and advertise it to women.  So, naturally, I used a transexual.  The concept of this ad is still a little unclear when I read it back to myself, but I think it might have some potential.  Also, I think it would be hilarious to exploit RuPaul's sexuality like this.  So I did.

IT'S YOUR COMMERCIAL, AND I HATE IT NOW.

First of all, this whole company sounds like an awful one to do business with.  Obviously, if you go through them to get the money from your settlement faster, they're going to keep a significant chunk of it.  My guess is half.  Does that seem worth it to you so you don't have to wait a few months?  Eh....
Second of all, like I've said before, who writes this crap??!  The writer responsible for this commercial actually thought having clips of 6 different people yelling out their windows with a small pitch sprinkled in would actually make for a good, funny commercial. Sure, its memorable, but only because it's so damn annoying. Just more of a reason why JG Wentworth has zero credibility in my eyes.

Wow. I'm almost speechless.

Now, this is truly creative thinking in advertising.  A concept like this is every creative person's dream.  Though, with that said, I think there might be some copyright and/or publicity issues here.  Regardless, it's still an amazing concept.

If this was ever actually made, it would make you weep.

It's so cliche, which makes me laugh whenever I read it back to myself, but I think it could actually make a pretty good commercial.  I'd appreciate your thoughts if anyone actually follow my posts each day.

The best print ads have little to no words.

It's true, and as a writer I kind of hate to admit it. But then again, writers have to the write the concept too.  And concepts of wordless print ads can be very impressive.  Usually, I like it better when they have short and clever headlines, but they're not always needed.  This ad is a perfect example.

Who writes this crap??!

First of all, this is a huge waste of airtime.  The "message" of this commercial could easily be conveyed the same in 30 seconds if you cut out all the wasted time of people looking up and actually looking concerned. Second of all, who writes this crap?!  Also, who is actually sitting in a board room listening to a pitch of a commercial involving a giant pink stuffed bunny trying to knock over a brick building like a wrecking ball and saying, "Wow, that's really clever.  And this commercial will definitely help us with our business." Whoever those people are, I want to meet both of them so I slam their heads together.  I mean, yeah, the ending line, "To do a job well, you need the right tools," makes sense from the build-up.  But when the build-up is trying to relate using a giant stuffed animal as a wrecking ball to using H&R Block to do your taxes, your message gets a little lost because the concept of how you delivered the message is so stupid.  At least that's how I see it.  But I'm also a little bit of an ad snob.

Look, Ma! That's me!

On my second day of my internship at Vox Medica, one of the creative directors handed my a handwritten template of an ad they wrote for a prescription payment plan by AstraZeneca called AZ & Me, and asked me to search the internet for appropriate pictures.  After an hour or so of scanning through creative image servers, I found this one and decided it would be the most appropriate for the ad.  So, I downloaded it to the desktop, sent it back over to the creative director and didn't hear much about it since.  Six months later, I see the finished product as I'm driving down I-95.  Although I can't take much credit for creating the ad itself, it was still pretty exciting at the time.

Sometimes, I hate that even the word "sex" sells.

And this totally explains why. Most people would agree with me (I hope) when I see that nothing about a semi-luxurious sedan as being sexy. I am not very turned on from seeing a new black Honda Accord drive down the street. Now, with that being said, what the hell is this commercial even trying to say?! Judging by the direction of the commercial, they're claiming that a Honda Accord is reliable, valuable, and good on gas mileage, and that's great. But how does the repeated word "sexy" fit in at all?!  Especially when it's all dismissed with the line, "only sexy is sexy." So then what is the Honda Accord? Not sexy? And this is a good thing then? I'm sure that's not what they're trying to say, but that's kind of what it feels like. It just doesn't make ANY sense to me and really kind of makes me hate the word sexy.

So good.

I typically hate fast food commercials, but I love the Burger King commercials with the super creepy King. This one is my favorite though.  Not only is it hilarious, but the whole joke behind the entire commercial is a great way to reflect the strategy of being able to eat cheap and save money in the morning by eating at Burger King.  Usually, these commercials all use the tagline, "Wake up with the King," which I think is perfect, but for some reason they don't in this spot.  Still, it's one of my favorites.

This is silly. But I hope you like it.

First of all, forgive me for my atrocious art direction- it's not my strong point.  Anyway, this is two pieces of my final project from my Creative Thinking class from last Spring.  The assignment was to choose from five made-up products and write a big campaign including a print ad, a 2-page print spread, a billboard, TV commercial, and a radio commercial.  My print ad and billboard were my favorite, so I decided to only share these two.  Basically, what the product is supposed to be is a prescription drug that can make you taller in as soon as two weeks.  Normally, I would hate to write an ad that suggests physical and self-esteem improvement, but there was no other way to go about this one.  Because it's such a ridiculous product, I tried to make the ads pretty ridiculous also.  These might actually be the most normal ads out of the whole campaign, but I like them the most.  What do you think?

Love ads like these.

Ads like this are great.  Whenever you have a strong, compelling, attention-grabbing image like this, the copy pretty much writes itself.  Because when you see this ad, you think, "why is there a guy with his hand down his pants?" (sex appeals, I guess).  However, this stopping power makes you read the copy, and if you've made it this far the copy can be as simple as possible and gets the point across to the reader perfectly.  This particular ad was so well done.

Just another awful drug commercial.

Why would anybody want to use this?!  The list of risks take up more than half the commercial and start just 25 seconds in.  Again, WHY WOULD ANYBODY WANT TO USE THIS??  Especially considering that really the only benefit is not having to remember to take your birth control pill everyday. I kind of expected there to be added benefits here considering it is a risk to going through your uterine wall, causing life threatening pregnancies, causing ovarian cysts, and so on. Anyone you actually uses this, must not care about their health ever having kids ever again.

Hope you like my attempt to write a jingle.

If you're familiar with the song "Mother's Little Helper," by the Rolling Stones that you'll get the melody of the jingle.  Otherwise, it's all kind of lost.  I liked it though, and so did my teacher.  Hope you do too.

Love this because I hate Lebron and his "What Should I Do" Commercial

What I love most about this is the fact that they're both Nike sponsors and Nike was cool enough to mash both of these commercials together in a call-out of Lebron.  Because essentially the message is this: Lebron James will never be as great as Michael Jordan.  And Lebron, and the rest of America, needs to realize that.  Though, what makes this message of the commercial even more significant is how Nike ties it all together in the end with the tagline, "Become Legendary." Because that is basically what Jordan is trying to tell Lebron in this commercial: stop being a pompous athlete that thinks he's naturally the best but only has excuses when he doesn't achieve the best (I was in Cleveland with no talent, so I'm going to go to Miami where we'll have 3/5 of a USA Olympic team), and work your hardest towards being the best without making any excuses.  Jordan's entire dialogue is also very well written.  The direction of the commercial is perfect.  Overall, just a perfect commercial.

Does anybody like a UTI?

The quality of this video sucks, but the one I wanted to use disabled its embedding code so I couldn't attach it here. This one's still pretty bad though. Anyway, first of all, this school needs a new name.  Or they just shouldn't call it by its abbreviation. The beginning of this commercial is cut off because this video sucks, but in the video I wanted to use it says, "Looking for a school that can help you find a job when you graduate? UTI is the answer." I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure most Americans associate "UTI" with a urinary tract infection. Pick a new name. Second of all, this particular commercial that I meant to attach here (called UTI TV Commercial - Job Placement) goes into how it is a great place to go if you want a quick education that will then place you into a job. However, while this is all being said, it says "UTI cannot guarantee employment" in white print on the bottom. So, basically your the selling points of your commercial are heavily downplayed by the disclaimer you have in small print at the bottom of the screen and the rest of the ad is fluff, right? Well, needless to say after watching the commercial, I'm convinced that UTI is a great place to start a lucrative career and never think about associate the name of the school with a urinary tract infection...

You might like this. But I'll understand if you don't.

So this was the second ad I ever wrote.  It was for my Introduction to Copywriting class that I took sophomore year without a clear vision of which track I wanted to go in.  After taking this class with my favorite teacher that I've ever had at Temple, Bob Olson, I decided to stick with the copywriting track.  Now for the ad itself, it is for a made-up instant coffee product called Morley's (this was better that crappy Starbucks instant coffee came out).  It was not only the first ad I wrote, but also, as if it weren't already obvious, the first ad I designed.  I really liked the strategy and most of the copy that I wrote for this ad though, so I'm not that ashamed of it.  I think I showed some promise as a copywriter at the time.

Love these

These commercials are all so crazy.  Although I'm sure some or all of them are a little staged and not real,  they're all done so well.  They clearly didn't take much writing, but the direction of all these commercials is amazing.  Not much else to say here really.  If you like the NFL, you'll also love these.  Watch the whole video.

Hatercombie.

If it weren't for the name, how would you actually be able to justify this being an ad for Abercrombie & Fitch?  I mean, shouldn't an ad for a clothing line contain models wearing the clothes and not naked?  If it weren't for the text in the background, I would ever think it's an ad for either underwear or a gay men's dating service.  Though, ALL Abercrombie & Fitch ads are like this- displaying 90% skin and 10% clothing.  Have you ever seen an Abercrombie catalog?  It's like a penthouse magazine.  I just don't get it and I don't understand how any creative director can think this is good advertising/branding for a CLOTHING brand.

Like this?

This is a 60-second radio commercial I wrote in my Copywriting Broadcast commercial last Spring.  The assignment was a 3-person group project in which we were told to pick any business and write two 60 second spots and one 30 second spot, using at least one tactic of humor in each spot.  Since there was three of us and three ads to write, we each wrote one and presented them as a group.  I remember my partner, Tyler, wrote a spot that was super funny too because he made an awesome jingle.  I wish I had the script to that one too.  Anyway, hope you like this one.

Another beer campaign I hate.

I love this song and pretty much anything Michael Franti does, except for being paid to put his song in this commercial.  This commercial is literally one of the most pathetic, unexciting, uninformative, annoying commercials I have ever seen.  There are no words or any meaningful stage or camera direction, so it's all pretty much just fluff.  I mean, I know Corona's strategy is pretty much to promote a beer that white people can drink and relax with on the beach, and if that's what you want to go for, that's fine.  But I really don't understand why now that it's Corona LIGHT, everything turns into a party on the beach instead of relaxing? Shouldn't you be marketing and promoting the beer itself and how it differs from the original Corona instead of just displaying it as a "beach party beer" with no elements of differentiation?  This makes me want to grab a creative director by the shoulders and shake them for a good 5 minutes.  I've always hated Corona.  This just added to it.

Love em

Alright, I know I went on a rant a few days ago about how I hate campaigns that don't know when to stop, but this is classic.  I know I might have a bit of a sports/ESPN/SportsCenter bias, but these commercials are always hilarious and have actually had a big following since they started in the early 90s.  Just last year, I remember seeing a hour long special on ESPN dedicated to the "This is SportsCenter" commercials, so clearly they've seen great success in their long history.  I think this is a campaign that doesn't need to stop, like that Coors Light campaign that I previously ripped, because it's not like they were selling you anything to begin with.  Instead, they're designed more to reach out to their fans (considering they only play on ESPN, usually during SportsCenter) to make them laugh and reinforce their positive opinion of the show and the ESPN network.  Even if the newer ones stop being as funny, I think it's a great campaign that should never die.

P.S. Did you notice how the "feds'" jackets said "FEA" on them?  I guess they weren't allowed to use the likeness of the FBI or DEA so they just combined the both of them?  Haha it's okay, these commercials can do no wrong in my eyes.

Hope you like

This was a commercial I made for a made-up product I thought of called the iShare. The assignment was to make up a product that is an extension from an already existing brand. I've always dreamt of something like this to make sharing music between iPods easier/possible, so it was pretty simple for me to think of this one. Also, writing the commercial came rather easy, as I tried to use Apple's current(at the time that I wrote this) strategy of their iPod commercials. This was part of a whole campaign including a TV spot, 2-page print spread, and a billboard. I explain more about how the product would work in the print spread, but I wasn't too thrilled with how it came out so I didn't post it. The billboard came out pretty well though...

LOVE this.

I LOVE this. Most people would disagree and say, "It makes no sense. How is it even selling the product?" BUT THAT'S THE POINT. It is an advertisement that makes fun of the cliche advertisements that most people buy into. I would love to meet the creatives that wrote this ad because they truly get it. They understand the fact that most traditional forms of advertising are usually alienating, cliche, and/or dumbing down the intelligence of the consumer. So, considering the product is just another drink that lacks very much differentiation from any other bottled beverage, they use the ad space to reject all cliches and typical expectations of advertising and basically make an ad about how they're all terrible; all while getting the Orangina name out there. Not only do I think it's completely hilarious, but I also think it's genius.

Hate this.

So, let me get this straight, Toyota.  You're marketing NEW CARS, something that only people 16 or older are legally able to drive and usually don't buy until they're in their 20s, to 8 year old kids?  So, the strategy behind your advertising campaign is to get into the minds of children to make them beg their parents to upgrade their family car from their "old prairie scooner (sp?)" to the 2011 Highlander?  REALLY?  Oh, yeah, let's just alienate children into becoming spoiled brats that need a more luxurious, technology-savvy SUV to be carted around by their parents in.  THEY'RE NOT EVEN CLOSE TO THE LEGAL DRIVING AGE.  The way I see it is if tobacco and alcohol can't be marketed towards children because they're not at the legal age to use them, then why should a marketing strategy like this be allowed?  Advertising to children is so dangerous because children are so uneducated.  Toyota is really just trying to reap the benefits of that lack of education and intelligence.

Hope you like this.

Last semester I had took Advertising Campaigns; a class entirely dedicated to semester long group project worth our entire grade that we presented on the last day of class.  Our client was Yuengling and we were asked to make a multifaceted campaign that markets Yuengling and Yuengling Light to both men and women.  So, the approach we took was creating a Yuengling Light campaign to be marketed towards men, a Yuengling Light campaign to be marketed towards women, and an all encompassing Yuengling campaign to be marketed towards sports fans and beer enthusiasts.  Since our group was made up of 10 people, we divided up the work among the 6 creatives.  This was the commercial for the Yuengling Light campaign for men that I was responsible for writing.  I also wrote a print ad, but it's not half as good as this.  It was actually written a lot differently than how it actually came out, but that was only because it took place in a loud bar that we couldn't record dialogue very well in.  So, just to give our professor a better idea of what it would look like, we made it into a cheesy production with poppy background music.  The real script is below if you want to see how it was really supposed to look.  I still think it's pretty hilarious.

HATE.

I guess I figured since it's NFL Playoff Sunday, my Hate/Love examples would be football themed. We'll say I did this on purpose and haven't just been watching football all morning.
Anyway, I hate this. I hate when campaigns don't know when it's time to stop.  I'm pretty sure this Coors Light campaign has been going on for 5 years now.  I swear they have a new, not-as-funny-as-the-last commercial every Sunday.  I mean, I understand the strategy and I won't lie, I enjoyed some of them for a while.  However, I think my enjoyment of them ceased once I saw my 20th commercial.  It's just gotten old.  I feel like the newer commercials are really straining themselves to be funny or entertaining.  I know there are some avid fans of these commercials, but can they all honestly say they haven't and won't get sick of them?  C'mon.  Come up with something new instead of recycling the same idea for years.  That's what creatives are really supposed to be doing.

Love this.

What I like most about this commercial is how well the dialogue is written.  There's very little stage and camera direction, and instead just clever, well written dialogue that is engaging, entertaining, and effectively selling the product.  I also like how it plays off of the fact that everyone is so alienated by technology nowadays that face-to-face communication is almost completely cut off.  Especially because they do it in a humorous matter while still selling us new technology. This is part of a whole campaign, but this spot was my favorite.  Probably because it uses NFL wide receiver, Calvin Johnson. Well done.

Hope you like this.

Mostly only Philadelphia natives are familiar with the With Love campaign by GoPhila.com, but it has become a very successful, well known campaign around the city and its surrounding suburbs. The campaign stemmed from the "Philly’s More Fun When You Sleep Over®" campaign that started in 2001 with the goal of attracting more tourism to the city. This then developed into the "With Love" campaign, which has shown more success, and is in my opinion much more creative.
Anyway, this was an ad I wrote for a class assignment in my Copywriting Print class. The assignment was to research past ads that have circulated from this campaign and write a new one that matches the same strategy and tonality of the past ads. I was shocked to find that they hadn't already written one involving Philly cheesesteaks, so I went that route. I thought I did fairly well on this one, but of course given the stubborn, "nothing's good enough for an A" professor that I had for that class, I received a B+. LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.

Love this(these)

Nowadays there are so many brands, products, and advertisements that most of them just get lost in the clutter.  Enter: guerrilla marketing.  Not only is it much more creative and innovative, an effective use always leaves a long lasting, meaningful impression on the consumer and, in turn, increases the spread of word of mouth.  After all, that is the purpose of advertising: to spread the known existence of your brand.

This is one of my favorites that I’ve seen on the web because it looks so real.  It reminds me of the glass elevator at the end of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I’ve always wanted to go skydiving.  And have my own chocolate factory.

Hate this

I guess I really have women’s back when it comes to advertisements. Anyway, I’m sick of ads like this.  Sure, it’s pretty funny to some people, but what makes it funny to me is the amount of ignorance it took Burger King to release this ad and think they were going to gain positive feedback and more business.  Because, let’s think about this.  An obvious phallic symbol in front of an attractive woman’s open mouth with the tagline, “It’ll blow your mind away,” from the same company that introduced the “Big Kids Meal” and sponsored the Kids’ Choice Awards?  Is it really a good strategy for Burger King to expose this kind of thing to the still uneducated minds of young children?  There’s so many things wrong with this ad that I could probably write a book about it.

Hope you like this

I never actually turned this in or used this for anything other than a piece in my portfolio, but I wish I had.  Originally, this what an partner assignment to just make a print ad for Crest.  My partner and I went a completely different direction and I made this after the fact.  It's funny because I completely forget what our ad looked like, and looking back on it I wish I would have just used this.  I'm pretty proud of it because because I think it has a strong strategy, concept, and execution of the layout.  Who said I'm no designer? :)

Hope you like this

This was an ad I wrote for my first assignment in my Copywriting: Print class last fall.  The assignment was pretty simple, pick a product and write a print ad.  Well, what was interesting about this was after I turned it in, my professor told me to stand in front of the class and read it to them because it's an example of "superb strategy." This was after I looked down at it and saw "B" written across the top.  Nothing else, just "B." Is it just me or does an "exemplary" piece of work deserve at least a B+? Though, I guess it was a little more settling at the end of the semester when I found out no one received higher than an A- for the class.  And that was only two people.  Anyway, let me know what you think, and if it maybe deserves more than a B.
By the way, the image is supposed to be a tissue holding up the Earth.  It didn't come out that well, but whatever.  I'm a writer, not a designer.

Hate this(these)

So, Miller Lite is for manly men who constantly fantasize about half-naked big-breasted women and beer, right? That's pretty much what this commercial is telling me.  Not only is it pretty offensive to women, it's also kind of offensive to men. Like almost every "masculine" Miller Lite commercial, this just displays men as brainless pigs who only care about beer, boobs, and BEING A MAN GRRRR. C'mon.  At least Bud Light commercials try to base their humor and strategy around things other than terrible gender stereotypes.

P.S. Would you believe this was a Super Bowl commercial?
Actually, yeah. That's totally believable.

Love this

Not much needs to be said. It's just so funny. Though, what I like most about it is that, unlike a lot commercials that focus more on being funny than actually selling their product, it slips in the selling point of the product clearly, while still being hilarious overall.  Also, no actor would have been more fitting than Kevin Bacon.  He makes this commercial as good as it is.
"So let's just say I happen to be in the mood for- I don't know- a movie about a rebellious teen who's living in a town where dancing's illegal. There is it."  Makes me laugh every time.

Hope you like this

I figured I'd open the posting of my own work with my favorite piece thus far.  This was a project I did when I interned for a pharmaceutical advertising agency called Vox Medica last Spring.  The product does not exist here in America, but was inspired from a product that was pitched in Australia.  I can take credit for everything except for the design of the ad.  Luckily, I was fortunate enough to work along side a great art director, Daniel Silverstein, on this one.  I did, however, find that image on Getty Images.  What a perfect picture.

P.S. Daniel convinced me to change it from "You love your pet, so why take away their ability to make love?" to "You love your pet, why take away their ability to make love?"  Should have never listened.

Love this

I know I usually have a huge Apple bias, but Windows really nailed this one.  It's funny, it's smart, and the last line, "it's time for a phone to save us from our phones" is brilliant.  Too bad the iPhone still kicks its ass.

Hate this

Are consumers really that enthusiastic about low prices for products?  Especially regarding office supplies.  I realize that that is supposed to be the strategy and humor behind this, but it almost makes consumers look like morons.  Shouldn't you be portraying the consumer in a positive light so you can gain their business? Also, I really just want to punch that guy in the face every time I see this commercial and hear his voice.